Father and son
by Ebenbild
Summary: A reason why Harry still is sane after living with the Dursleys for ten years without having any friends or friendly people around him. Could be canon. Just a little bit about James and Harry and Harry and James.
1. Chapter 1

_Just an odd little idea I got while thinking about fathers and sons and the fact that Harry somehow seems alright despite his upbringing at the Dursley household where he was at least called names and banished in a cupboard…_

_**Disclaimer**__: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

_**Placing:**__ Harry's time at the Dursleys before he goes to Hogwarts. The story itself does not change anything in the Harry Potter series. It simply adds a part before the adventures in school start… so could be canon._

_This will be a two chapter story – all about Harry and James and James and Harry._

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_**James and Harry**_

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When Harry was little, he knew three things for sure:

First, the Dursleys hated him.

Second, his parents were drunks who killed themselves in a car crash, Harry shouldn't have survived.

And third, he was loved even now.

It was the last fact that kept him sane and lovable. He was sweet, good mannered and he survived the Dursleys while not losing his ability to love because he still was loved – even now, with a pair of drunks as parents and the Dursleys as guardians.

"I love you" James said, while sitting next to Harry on the cot in Harry's cupboard. "You know I do, don't you?"

And Harry did.

The first time he had met James was when he had turned three. At that time Harry had felt absolutely awful. A few days ago he finally had understood that his aunt and uncle would never love him no matter what he did. And at that time Harry had also finally understood that there was no one in the world who loved him anymore.

Maybe Harry would have turned dark and bitter after that day – like Severus Snape and Tom Riddle had at one point in their lives – maybe Harry would have started to take a dark path from now on, hadn't he met James that day…

James had been eleven and had come to congratulate him to his birthday. He had come at midnight, suddenly sitting in front of the cot in Harry's cupboard.

"Who are you?" Harry had asked him astonished that day.

"I am James – who are you?"

"Harry" Harry had said, looking curiously at James. "You have the same name as I. My other name is also James."

And suddenly James had smiled at him, a sudden understanding in his eyes.

"Maybe there is a reason why you are named James" he mused. "Maybe your father's name was James and so you were named Harry James."

"Hu?"

James just shrugged.

"In my family there is a tradition of naming a child after a dead relative or a father" he explained, brown eyes looking at green ones. "I was named after my grandfather. So maybe you are Harry James because your father was a James…"

"My father was a drunk" Harry said. "I do not want the name of a drunk." Even if Harry did not really know what a drunk was, he knew to be a drunk was bad. He did not want to have the name of a bad person – he was bad enough without it, after all.

"Maybe your father was no drunk but a hero and your aunt and uncle lied to you" James answered. "Then you would be sad if James wasn't the name of your dad…"

"But…"

"Did your aunt always tell you the truth?" James interrupted. "Can you really trust her?"

Harry hesitated, then shook his head.

"Well then wait until you are old enough and find out about your dad. Judge him after you know him – and if he really is a drunk then remember that I am also a James. You could be named after me…"

At that, Harry smiled and James smiled back.

"Harry" James finally said and patted Harry's head. "I missed you. I missed you since I left you."

"Left me?" Harry asked and James nodded.

"I left you two month ago – for me, that is" James answered. "May I come again when I miss you?"

Harry just shrugged.

"Yes" he finally decided. Being missed sounded as if James liked him – so being missed sounded good for the lonely three year old boy.

After that James had congratulated him on his birthday and had vanished in thin air.

The years after, James visited regularly. And while Harry grew up to be a little boy and finally a big boy, James did also. Over the years James turned from a young boy with laughing brown eyes to a teenager with messy dark hair and then to a young adult.

They met regularly. James normally came in the middle of the night, suddenly snapping into existence next to Harry's cot. He came, they talked and he vanished in thin air again.

Harry wasn't a very forthcoming boy, but James made it up with talking twice as much. He talked about everything. School. His friends. His family…

The stories started on the second visit of James. It was three weeks later when James returned. Harry had been thrown into his cupboard for doing something wrong. That same night, James had come again.

"Hello" he had said. "I love you."

And when Harry just stared at the older boy, the boy smiled in return.

"I do, believe me" James said.

"I do not know you" Harry answered.

And James had shrugged and said. "So let me tell you about myself."

And then he had launched into a story about a girl named Lily, pranks, Ally and slimy Slytherins.

Over the years Harry learned, except of the things he knew about the Dursleys and his life, some new facts he needed to know when speaking to James:

First, James was a prankster.

Second, Slytherins were slimy and not trustworthy.

And third, Lily could do nothing wrong while Ally – sometimes also called Al – was just Al as long as Ally didn't do something wrong in James's eyes…

Of course there were also names Harry had to learn to understand who James was talking about…

There was McGonagall, the strict. James liked her quite well.

Hagird, the big softy. James loved him dearly.

Professor Flitwick, the witty. Professor Slughorn, the collector. James hated him because Slughorn tried to collect him because of James's father and grandmother…

Then there was Frank Longbottom, the annoying, Ted – often called Teddy – the cool, Malfoy, the prat, and Severus…

No comment to the conflicted feelings James had for Severus…

There were dozens of others – some having two names: one name when James was happy with them, and one when he was annoyed. It took Harry years until he was sure which names belonged all to one person and which belonged to a different one…

And James mentioned many. He spoke about his friends, about school and adventures, about enemies and Lily. About flying and Slytherins, Ally and Severus…

There were people he just mentioned once. There were people he sneered at like Severus. There were people he was fond of like Al and Lily…

And of course there was 'Mum', the terrifying and loving, and 'Dad', the hero.

"My Dad is a hero" James said. "He fought in the last wizarding war. He's an Auror and a great leader."

"A great leader?" five year old Harry asked and James nodded.

"Like Albus Dumbledore" he said with hero-worship in his eyes. "Like Godric Gryffindor and Merlin."

Harry just knew about the last one but he understood that James's dad must be a really great hero to be someone like Merlin. After all Harry had heard that Merlin had made Arthur a king – and to be able to make someone a king this person must be powerful and great.

"What did he do?"

"He once fought against monsters" James answered with shining eyes. "Monsters that suck out your soul if you come too close to them. There were hundredth of them and he fought them all without getting a scratch."

Then James spoke about dragons, hippogriffs and werewolves…

"One day I will be able to change in an animal" James said. "And then I will prank the whole school…"

And he kept on and on about pranks and everything else, just to sigh and say. "Of course dad mustn't find out. Not that he would mind – but he is my father so he will have to punish me for it… I still love him though. He is, after all, the best father in the world…"

And Harry decided that he wanted to be just like that.

James's Dad was a hero. He was someone to relay on, someone trusted and loved – all traits the lonely little boy saw as something good and worthy as a goal.

"Someday I will exactly be like your dad, James" Harry finally declared one day when he was seven. Fifteen year old James just laughed.

"I am sure you will" he answered. "The same as I. One day I will be a hero like my dad."

"So I can't?" Harry asked hesitatingly.

"No" James said. "I am sure you will be like my dad one day – he is my hero, but I do not mind if he is your hero, also…"

And the years kept going. James grew up to be a young adult, Harry grew up to be a big boy.

"I will not come back after today" James finally said when Harry turned ten.

"Why?"

"Because I cannot" James answered. "But I promise – one day I will come again. Just once and it will be years until that day."

"But why?"

"Because you do not need me anymore" James said.

"But that's not true! I still need you!"

"No, you don't" James said. "You will go to the same school I went next year. You will find friends and adventures. You don't need me for that."

"But…"

"No buts. I know you will be fine" James smiled.

"But why won't you come anymore?"

"I am eighteen now" James answered softly. "My schooling is finished. I cannot come back as soon as I say good-bye to my school, I am sorry…"

"So… you will never come again?"

James hesitated.

"I promise you…" he finally said still hesitating. "I promise you I will come just one time back to you. I still have enough time left at school to return one time…"

"So when…"

"For you it will be years" James said. "I cannot come when you're at school. But I promise I will return once after you have finished school. I just cannot say how long it will be until then."

"Promise?" Harry finally asked.

"Promise" James said earnestly. "Until we meet again."

And with that he vanished for the last time – until they met again…

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_So – how do you like my James and my Harry?_

_I just thought that when Harry grew up knowing that he was loved he could end up like he acted in the books more likely._

_I hope you liked it until now._

_Ebenbild_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer**__: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

_**Placing:**__ Harry's school time and after the war - still could be canon…_

_This is the second chapter of my story – all about Harry and James and James and Harry._

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_**Harry and James**_

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The year before Hogwarts was lonely sometimes, but then came school and soon Harry had all but forgotten about James and all the things he had told him.

There was simply too much going on to remember and miss James more than once in a while. Mostly his birthdays and the summer holidays where the times Harry remembered and missed James the most.

Of course there were times at school when he also missed James.

Like in second year when suddenly all people believed that Harry was the heir of Slytherin or like in forth year when all thought he had entered himself in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. In times like that Harry often wished for James's stories about his father and all the obstacles his father had faced and gone out proud and strong.

In other times like at the end of fourth year after Cedric died, at the end of fifth, when Sirius died, at the end of sixth, when Dumbledore died or at the end of seventh when so many people died, Harry wished for James's stories to remember that others had faced losses and had still come out stronger than before…

But James wasn't there and so Harry was clinging to the memories of James's stories he had and continued.

Then the war ended and Harry became an Auror. He went and hunted down the rest of the Death Eaters, other criminals and rogue werewolves or vampires…

Finally Ginny was old enough and they married.

They continued life until all that was, was forgotten.

The war and the adventures of Harry's school years were nothing but memory. And the life at the Dursleys before Hogwarts an even more distant memory then Hogwarts.

And still – sometimes Harry still remembered James, thinking about the ghostly boy that he finally had connected to his dead father somehow. He just couldn't figure out how James could have known him when James was still a child…

But the answer never had come forth and James had not returned like promised. Harry had waited year after year after he had left Hogwarts but finally, after five years of waiting he given up on seeing James again.

Instead he had moved on.

He had made his dream true and had become Head Auror like James's dad – Head Auror, hero and a loving husband and now father.

Harry smiled and looked down at the baby boy in his arms.

Ginny had delivered the little man just hours ago and was still sleeping exhausted in the hospital bed.

It was the first time that Harry had time to look closely at his new born son. The hair looked as if it would be the typical Potter hair one day. The eyes were closed but still baby blue. It would take some time until they would show their true colour.

"James" Harry whispered, looking down at the child in his arms. "James Sirius."

Ginny and he had decided on this name to honour his godfather and father.

His father – a hero indeed. James had been right on that one. Harry would never be ashamed of his second name ever again…

Then Harry smiled and caressed his sons few dark strands of hair.

"My little James" he said softly.

"Yes" another voice whispered next to him.

Harry startled and turned to look at… James – the other James, not the baby in his arms…

"You know you will not survive if you let him drop" James said smirking, looking down at the baby in Harry's arms.

"James!" Harry said astonished.

"Yes" James said again, still looking at the baby in Harry's arms.

"That's weird, somehow" he remarked and finally looked up at Harry. "On the other hand – that's not the first weird thing in my life until now…"

"Weird?" Harry asked, looking at James who looked still like the eighteen years of age that he had looked when he left him at the time Harry was ten.

"You're still eighteen" Harry remarked surprised.

"Of course" James said. "I saw you… little you… just two weeks ago – well, at least it was two weeks ago for me."

"Two weeks…"

"Yes" James said, smiling. "I will graduate in two hours – you will be there, I hope?"

Harry blinked and stared at James.

"What?" he asked confused.

"At my graduation – you will be there, won't you, Dad?" James said smiling, then looking back down at the child again.

"Er… sure…" Harry said, still too flabbergasted to say anything else.

"Thanks" James said, not looking up.

"I really was cute, you were right" he finally remarked, then smirked. "But you were also… when you were three… or four… or five…"

"James!"

James just laughed then caressed his baby self's cheek.

"I see you in eighteen years, Dad" he said, still smiling and vanished, leaving behind an astonished looking Harry with James's sleeping baby self in his arms.

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Eighteen years later, eighteen year old Hogwarts graduate James Sirius Potter sat up in his chair and opened his eyes just to look right in the bespectacled green ones of his father.

"Hello Dad" he said and smiled.

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**Fin.**

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_So – how do you like my James and my Harry? Did you guess that James is not Harry's father but his son? xD_

_I just thought it would be interesting when it isn't James Potter but James Sirius Potter this time who aids Harry while living with the Dursleys._

_And just another explanation: James is not really travelling through time. His body stays in the future, just his soul goes back to his father's younger self._

_Character Explanation from charpter 1: Lily is Lily Luna, James's Baby sister. Ally/Al is Albus Severus, James's younger brother. The same goes for Severus: James calls Albus 'Severus' when he is annoyed with his brother. Frank Longbottom is Neville's son, Malfoy is Scorpius Malfoy and Ted(dy) is Teddy Lupin. _

_I hope you liked it._

_Ebenbild_


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